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UNITED STATES OF AMEEIOA. 



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HAPPY IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 



A SEEMON 

PREACHED IN REFERENCE TO THE DEATH OF 

President Garfield, 

AT THE First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, on 
Sunday, September 25TH, 1881, 

By JOSEPH MAY, 

Minister of the Church, 



with THE ORDER OF SERVICE AND ADDRESS ON THE PUBLIC FAST DAY, 
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. 



Privately Printed. 




HAPPY IN LIFE AND IN DEATH. 



A SERMON 



PREACHED IN REFERENCE TO THE DEATH OF 



President Garfield, 



AT THE First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, on 
Sunday, September 25TH, i88i, 

By JOSEPH MAT, 

Minister of the Church, 



WITH THE ORDER OF SERVICE AND ADDRESS ON THE PUBLIC FAST DAY 
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. 



Privately Printed. 



■B^ 



NOTE. 

President Garfield was assassinated on Saturday, July 2, 1881, and died on Mon- 
day, September 19, 1881. 

Reference was made to the event in our pulpit, by the pastor, in remarks before 
the sermon of Sunday, July _^, and ayain, in prospect of 'the President's death, be- 
fore the sermon of September 18. The following sermon was preached on the suc- 
ceeding Sunday. On Monday, September 26th, in response to the proclamations of 
the President of the United States and of the Governor of Pennsylvania, a memorial 
service was conducted by the pastor, of which a synopsis is given at the close of this 
pamphlet, with the address delivered. 



Edward Stbkn & Co., 125 & 1^7 N. Scveiuli Street, PhiUulelphi 



SERMON. 

Lamentations, i., i. — " How is she become as a widow, she that was great among 
the nations ! " 

IS it from some source that is peculiar in our modern life, that 
our communities are the subject of such constantly recurring 
shocks and tides of feeling, glad or sorrowful ? 

Or is it only that the means of instantaneous communication, 
involving us in sympathies now commensurate with the civilized 
world, and bringing upon us the strain of emotions arising in causes 
still proceeding, pour these floods upon us in their full strength and 
freshness ? 

Probably, both things are true. Modern life, at least the life 
of our present epoch, with our denser population and vastly in- 
creased wealth, the general intelligence opening all subjects of in- 
terest to the entire community, is naturally increased in mental and 
moral intensity ; while that convenience of communication brings 
each new occasion of sympathy so promptly before us that there is 
scarcely an interval for the repose which — perhaps mistakenly, — 
we are apt to fancy as the habitual condition of older times. The 
modern individual sits before the drama and tragedy of tJic world, — 
the scenes unfolding in remotest countries almost as vivid to him 
as those enacting at his own door. At least, his whole country is 
now as near and present with him as was to his predecessor his 
city or village. This magnitude of modern excitements must cer- 
tainly be an important element in their power to strain and exhaust 
us. The strifes of factions in ancient Rome, in media,*val Italy, 
in the France of the Huguenot period, in' the England of Stuart 
(lays, were almost more heated than we experienced in our own 
Civil War. The element of personal feeling was more sharp and 
bitter in either ; particular events were more horrible. Yet, in 
either case, they came to the private individual more slowly; a 
greater proportion of the people knew little or nothing of them ; 
usually, an event was almost historical before it was generally 
known. Now, every pulse beat.s simultaneously with every other, 
under the surge of emotions coursing in full tide through the many 
millions of a great people. 



" Nothing so probable as the unexpected," was the political 
maxim of that strange leader in British affairs who a few months 
ago finished his dramatic career. It is said to have been the half- 
superstitious notion, also, of the man whose history, likewise very- 
dramatic in many of its situations, and at last so deeply tragical, has 
just closed amid the profound sympathies of the entire world. 

One year ago, and there was scarcely a visible probability that 
this particular citizen was to be selected for our Chief Magistracy. 
His name had been hardly more than mentioned as one of a score 
of possible candidates to replace in some emergency of wire- 
pulling more prominent aspirants. Accepted by the people with 
wide-spread satisfaction as a very fortunate choice, he entered 
upon his functions in a period of the greatest prosperity, of absolute 
peace, of no profound political divisions. The healing process had 
gone far and was advancing constantly farther between the great 
sections of the country. North and South. The one factious strife, 
in which he was partly involved, had been effectively quenched in 
an absurd denouement. If, on the day of his inauguration, or as 
late as the bright morning when he left that Presidential Mansion, 
which has been a home of sorrow to so many of its occupants, to 
.start upon his summer's tour of recreation, the President had been 
warned by some cynic of foreign birth, or, like Caesar, by a wife's 
dream, that his fate was near, he could have had no responsive 
thought but one of most honestly derisive security. In his mag- 
nificent physical vigor, with the growing regard of a whole peace- 
ful, generous, busy population, no life was safer than his, as, with 
the freedom which attends the personal doings of our high 
officials, he walked quietly to his train. In a moment, he 
became the victim of the mo.st wanton, mo.st utterly causeless, 
most pitiable assassination by which any monarch or magis- 
trate was ever stricken down. He had before him the most 
terrible struggle for life in which any man, whose position has 
given him a place in hi.story. was ever involved. Oh, irony of hu- 
man fortunes! Who can pretend, in a case like this, to understand 
the theory of Providential dealings? What more can we do than 
cling to tlie strange, the superrational/jz/// which still so wonder- 
fully buoys up our human hearts, and which in our private griefs 
is the one anchor from despair? "God reigns," he had said 
himself when his great predecessor, the last oblation on the altar of 



freedom, was even more suddenly cut off. " God reigns," and " God is 
God," is all we can say to-day, or a hundred times in our private 
lives, in the presence of the great anomalies of Providence. After 
all, it is only the tremendous contrasts of the picture, the publicity 
of the stage, which makes this tragedy harder than many another 
to accept, and yet believe that all is well. 

It is not worth while here to dwell upon the crime in itself, ex- 
cept to refer to it summaril}- as an illustration of the power of 
morbid imagination in even a mind substantially sane. Students 
of such subjects are doubtless familiar with similar phenomena. If 
there is any private lesson for common men to learn from this 
miserable tragedy, it seems to be that of responsibility for our 
.secret thoughts, — of the power and danger of uncontrolled imagina- 
tions. As an actual fact, it would appear to be strictly true that 
the world we severally dw^ll in is as much in each particular case 
the creation of our own minds as it is the objective work of God and 
of real causes. This agrees with the profound truth that all reality 
is spiritual. Practically, what we think of everything that it is to 
us. The true locus of moral responsibility is, therefore, in the 
government of the thoughts, the regulation of sentiments, the 
moulding of conceptions, under the guidance of clearly discerned 
facts, of positive truths, and of unmistakable principles. Where 
the line between sanity and insanity runs, is a difficult question for 
the expert. But it is actually crossed by the individual whenso- 
ever, by the habit of his mind, or by the indulgence of particular 
imaginations, he allows himself to drift from the world of objective 
realities into a region of facts distorted or created by his personal 
conceptions. At this recondite point, I say, the fundamental work 
of conscience is to be done ; and how important it is not merely 
this horribly flagrant instance exhibits, but the vast majority of less 
notable crimes, many prevailing vices, and even many of our mere 
private mistakes and faults. 

One practical form which morbid imagination has widely taken, 
was illustrated in this dreadful case, and should be carefully con- 
sidered. The criminal pleads a commission from Heaven. So 
does the foolish man who sought by like violence to avenge the 
victim. Innumerable crimes have in all times been committed 
under this delusion or pretext. Those who accept the doctrine of 
express revelations from God, or who press the idea of His 



guidance of human souls beyond the realm of principles into the 
region of actual deeds, should mark the essential danger of acting 
on a motive which it is impossible to authenticate. He who allows 
himself to believe that any particular act whatever — be it good or 
evil, — is the express dictate of Providence, has departed from the 
domain of reason, and is giving the helm of his life to whim and 
vagary. 

That the assassination of President Garfield arises from a source 
essentially irrational and crazy, while it gives it a character exqui- 
sitely pitiable, is yet, perhaps, the profoundest of the consola- 
tions which accompany it. As I remarked when the act was fresh, 
it had no political or social significance, and has presaged no pub- 
lic evils. For this we may be profoundly grateful. 

On the contrary, the murder of the^iead of our Government has 
served to bring out and mark so unmistakably before the world 
the soundness of our political condition and the security of our in- 
-stitutions, it has borne such a witness to the virtues of democ- 
racy, that, so far from dying in vain, the President might almcxst 
have been willing to give his life that this witness should liave 
been offered to the world. Even in many of us at home, a fresh 
and profounder confidence in a democratic social order has unques- 
tionably been developed, as we have seen it bear, as it were so 
naturally, certainly so triumphantly, the strain of an unprecedented 
catastrophe. It has revealed imperfections in our written Consti- 
tution which may well enough be remedied. But it has shown 
that the true strength of all just government is in that unwritten 
law of reason and conscience which has worked so effectivel)* in 
those who have had to assume responsibilities in this crisis, and in 
the whole people. Nothing but the brave patience of the sufferer 
himself could exceed the propriety and self-restraint whicli have 
marked the attitude of his successor, and from the unpc^pularit}' in 
which he was at one time involved have restored him to the gen- 
erous confidence of the people. The democratic order is a sort 
o{ family government. It involves something of the same con- 
fusion and irregularity, the same necessity for occasional assum|)- 
tions of authority. But so long as that generous patriotism en- 
dures, which has lain like a family love at the l)ottom of the do- 
mestic fret and jar of our prosperous times, and has never failed 
hitherto to come out in great emergencies, we shall be more 



than safe without those artificial buttresses by which monarchical 
systems are everywhere and necessarily secured. I think we never 
had more marked occasion for confidence and generous pride in 
our institutions and in the peculiar traits of our national character. 
It may be said, with no exaggeration and in no boastful spirit, that 
no nation exists, or has ever existed, which for a period of months 
could continue without a head, the men actually conducting the 
(Government being merely irresponsible clerical subordinates not 
known to the Constitution ; the one man who might have claimed 
the place of authority abstaining with a reserve we may fairly call 
chivalrous, and yet in response to a public sentiment at 
once instinctive and imperious, from any demonstration in that 
direction. Such a spectacle will pass into history in close asso- 
ciation with the sublime. Let us but give God the glory, 
who planted in our fathers' hearts the germs of ideas which 
have borne such admirable fruit. And, especially, let not 
passing trepidations seduce us into any action inconsist- 
ent with the principles out of which it has come. From the acts 
of maniacs it is impossible for any man to be protected. It would 
be a step in the direction of the characteristic danger— imperial- 
ism, which always waits upon democracy, to invest the person 

of the Chief Magistrate of the time being with any sanctity but 
that of popular respect, or to limit or modify that dignified sim- 
plicity which has marked the personal habits of our high officials. 
One lesson of this disastrous time has been that of the real dignity 
of our Presidential office; of the undiminished respect for it which 
lives in the hearts of the people ; and especially of the sufficiency of 
our institutions to care for its incumbent with a tenderness and 
abundance of external ministration which royalty could hardly 
have commanded. The wounded President was held in the arms of 
the whole people as a sick babe in the arms of its mother. No 
monarch's progress was ever so imposing as that hurrying train 
bearing him to a purer air when the conflict became desperate. By 
no imperial edict it flew to its destination, supplanting the business 
and convenience of every- citizen, transporting the sufferer without 
a jar through anxious cities, across private pleasure-grounds, to a 
private door flung open tc receive him as eagerly and lovingly as 
that of his own modest home ! Its path was opened by a rever- 
ence for his office and a .sympathy with his sufferings utterly 



simple and genuine, commanding for him in the name of the whole 
people's pity the last resources of skill and care and wealth. We 
must foreclose such spontaneous workings of republican loyalty by 
no provisions which should in the least remove our Magistrates, in 
their persons, from their relation of simple membership to the 
body of the people. We want none of the divinity which doth 
hedge a king, but to keep that honest, willingly conceded defer- 
ence for the occupant of a responsible post of service which is 
really reverence for the dignity of all great human interests — the 
respect of a nation for itself. We want to keep open the channels 
of that simple human kindness which flowed out upon the late 
President as upon a relative and personal friend, from every citizen 
of the republic. It is by nursing such sentiments that we shall 
strengthen and solidify our institutions. 

And, so doing, we extend their influence far beyond our own 
limits. I doubt if any event ever did so much to recommend republi- 
cani.sm to Europeans as the sufferings of President Garfield have 
done. The occasion has been unique in calling out the sympathiesof 
all peoples, and has even done something to promote the solidarity 
of mankind. Its effect in cementing the mutual regard of England 
and America has been precious. To subjects of kings and princes 
in their recent mood of feeling, it shall have taught a lesson of the 
essential dignity of all high positions as consisting in service ; a 
lesson of the superfluousncss of artificial distinctions of rank and ot 
inherited rulerships ; a lesson, in a word, of the real trustworthiness 
ot human nature and of men's capacity to manage their political 
affairs as well as their private business for themselves. Republi- 
canism is no cure-all for the ills of human life. It has not averted 
the corruptions which cluster about all great interests. But once 
more, in a new and strange aspect, it has proved its practical suf- 
ficiency, in an educated community, to maintain order, to give sanc- 
tity to high functions, and to develop the finer virtues of a popula- 
tion. 

To have been the instrument of such a testimony to institutions 
which he loved and of which his own character and career were a 
striking illustration, raises Mr. Garfield's death effectively to the 
dignity of a martyrdom. Addtothis its effect in restoring sympathy 
between the long-alienated South and the Union, and in clearing 
the political air of the vapors which were obscuring our recent 



days, and finally in creating one more ideal, however imaginative, 
yet not to be the less effective, of elevated and disinterested states- 
manship, and I cannot think that in heaven the soul of the de- 
parted President can repine at its translation. Nor could a man 
who was capable of the manly fortitude, the religious submissive- 
ness, with which he met his great disappointment and endured his 
terrible sufferings, undervalue the occasion of teaching a lesson of 
these personal virtues so impressive as his has been ; while one of 
feelings so cordial might reverently bow in gratitude to Provi- 
dence for an opportunity, by his extremest sufferings, so to 
twine about himself the close affections of a great people and the 
tender sympathies of the world. Whatever shall be the calm 
verdict of history as to his due position as a statesman, as a man 
he has justly earned in those terrible weeks of physical pain and 
mental trial the full meed of admiration and honor which he has 
received. This impulsive tribute to heroism and dignity will never 
be rescinded. He had .scarcely been tried in his high official 
position. But he had time and occasion to show, by the stalwart 
courage, the unpretending yet unyielding patience of his sick bed ; 
by his affectionate tenderness to those who ministered beside it ; 
by glimpses of his loyalty to friends, and of the beautiful unity of 
his marriage relation ; and by the manly simplicity which marked 
all his conduct from his nomination as President to his tragic end. 
no inadequate title, in the substantial qualities of his character, to 
that place in which he is doubtless permanently en.shrined in the 
imagination of the people, beside Washington, the hero of the 
first great struggle for American liberty, and Lincoln, the martyr 
of the second. 

To be made one of such a triad, surely, it were worth one's 
while to die. In the most selfish sense, as one contemplates Presi- 
dent Garfield's history, he is to be congratulated upon its close. 
It was said of old that a man's greatest privilege is a fitting time to 
die. It is most certain that for this man a peaceful and prosperous 
administration offered no possible opportunity for immortality 
such as was purchased for him in the period of his disablement. 
And though a generous heart might well have craved the privilege 
of exhibiting by patriotic service its gratitude for the sympathy his 
sufferings have evoked, the most confident might have shrunk from 
the task of equalizing his accomplishments with the expectations 



10 

that have been aroused throuc^h the process of ideah'zation which 
has already canonized him among the saints of our history. It 
seems to me it may sometimes be a shock for any sufferer to turn 
back from the near presence of heaven to the dust}' ways of earth. 
To have done so with a shattered physique, with power of will and 
mental vigor impaired, as almost must have been the case for him 
we are contemplating, and so to take up the tremendous task of 
meeting the exacting expectations of popular love and admiration, 
would have been almost too much for humanity to attempt. 

Let us then call the President happy in his death ! Yes, happy 
in his whole career. As it is known to the public, it was not 
perhaps, without its imperfections ; yet these, such as they 
were, seem to have been due more to temperament than to the 
lack of principle. Manly, vigorous, generously ambitious, his 
private life was pure, simple and genial, and he certainly passed 
through the trials of his public life with marked exemption from 
the defilements that cling to politics. He was hardly a ^r^^^/ man ; 
his vision was not always clear ; his yielding disposition led him. 
it would .seem, into occasional inconsistencies. Rut his aims were 
generous and elevated, and during a long public service he cer- 
tainl}' preserved the reputation of a politician of the better sort 
Sustaining that painful pressure of comparative poverty in public 
life which is one of the minor but serious difficulties of our dem- 
ocratic system, he remained poor in a position where not a few 
have found it possible to make great fortu^.es without wholly for- 
feiting the public confidence ; and he would have left his family 
destitute, but for the swift generosity of the people, even anticipat- 
ing his death. There is no doubt of his sincere and ardent pa- 
triotism, his thorough sympath}' with American ideas. He was 
thoroughly manly; he had been master in his own career and had 
made conditions yield to character. The composure with which he 
met the sudden assault of his assassin, and the fortitude with 
which he bore the [)ain and weariness of so man\' weeks, and 
viewed the prospect of death, only parallelled the personal 
courage which he had displa\'ed during his military service, and 
especially in the battle which gave him his soldierly fame, 
and on the anniversary ot which he died. In his domestic life 
there was the truest felicity ; his marriage and parenthood were a 
model i)f conjugal and famih virtue ; and it may be said that the 
simple affection which he wab not ashamed, on the most public 



II 

and conspicuous occasions to manifest for his wife and venerable 
mother, with the tenderness of their devotion to him, gave the last 
impulse to that surge of popular affection which has henceforth 
enshrined them all as no family was ever before taken uj) into 
public regard. 

It was a typical American career, — one of a thousand others 
which have proved the virtue of the stock from which we spring, 
and have illustrated the possibilities that are ever lodged in char- 
acter beyond the utmost hostility of circumstances. He began 
with absolutely no adventitious helps. His }'outh was almost 
passed before he could fluentl)' read. His avocations up to that 
time were as humble as fall to the lot of man and surrounded by 
the tempations through which poverty and isolation so readih' 
degrade men. Hut his mother's blood stirred in him and waked 
the man. Quickly conquering the rudiments of an education, he 
starts for college with fifteen dollars in his pocket, (ten of which 
he almost loses by tlie way,) a modern knight-errant, — a new 
Whittington. In five years, he is teaching others ancient tongues. 
In seven, he has taken, with honors, a bachelor's degree in a 
respectable college, and is professor of languages and literature in 
the modest institution where his higher studies began. Henceforth, 
his history is but the ordinary course of rising men, for which the 
circumstances of our country have so generously provided. But it 
was all the fruit of his own ambition, energy, persistence and 
talent, and he is entitled to its praise. 

Of such careers, — of the possibility of them, — we ma)' well be 
proud. They, and not our great crops and mighty highways, 
are the grand things America has to show to tlie world. They are 
our characteristic product. xAnd it is nothing strange that the 
executive office passes to the hands of another of the same class. 
It is a type which, like every type, has its characteristic defects. 
Especially, it misses the cJiastcning xw'^wo.wcc of thorough education 
in the " humane arts," particularly the history of the past. Yet 
from among this class, our country through, have come not merely 
our enterprising men of affairs, but some of our noblest examples 
of virtue. Indeed, in every land, while circumstances may favor, 
the really great man must be self-made. And it is out of this 
class that everywhere the leaders of men are being recruited. 

And so, once more, we look on that spectacle, forever solemn, 
mysterious, suggestive, — an ended life ! Strange the drama always! 



12 

What a marvel that the infinitesimal physical germ should so ex- 
pand into the grand complicated organism, full of force, instinct 
with activMty, — fit dwelling-place of the thinking, dreaming, aspiring, 
restless soul ! How dramatic almost any human history ! Through 
what contingencies, physical and moral, we all pass! What inter- 
weaving of destinies ! What hopes, what sorrows, what fears, what 
joys, what perturbations! And then, — stillness, peace! Lay aside 
the rent garment, — hide the features we loved, — the man is gone ! 
Some grander work has beckoned him, a broader opportunity, a 
finer hope I There is a strange dignity in the act of dying. How 
little all one's achievements, one's restless desires, how contempt- 
ible one's possessions seem now ! 

"Only the actions of the just 
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust." 

The President's end is a startling reminder of the never-learned 
uncertainty of human life. " All men think all men mortal but 
themselves." Curious delusion of vitality ! We meet and mourn 
him ; to-morrow we may be where he is ! It ought to check sensu- 
ality and avarice ; it ought to make benevolence easy ; it ought to 
give us a facile patience ; it ought to spur us to diligence in whatever 
we would do for the world. The time for us all is short. 

Yet, I do not think the change should seem very great to us. 1 
cannot think of it as altering aught that is essential or important 
to us. It is but a shifting of scenery — the soul must remain itself. 

So it should be viewed with calmness for ourselves, and, when 
it takes from us our dear ones, with perfect confidence that all is 
well with them. And though it must sometimes desolate life for 
us beyond our power to regain its pristine cheer, still even death 
is not quite enough to rob us of our confidence in God. 

In that, as a people, we may amply repose. To the perfection 
of wisdom and goodness we commend the spirit of our departed 
Magistrate, fellow-citizen, brother ! To the infinite tender love 
whence came the brightness of her former days, we commend the 
bruised heart of her to whom he was not President, wasnot states- 
man, but the other portion of herself ; now torn from her, leaving 
her bleeding. She, too, has been privileged to teach us a lesson. 
May the pity of God be with her ; may His grace enwrap and 
strengthen her, and may His wisdom inspire and guide her chil- 
dren ! Amen. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES AT THE SERVICE HELD 

ON THE PUBLIC FAST DAY. MONDAY, 

SEPTEMBER 26, 1881. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 

Organ Voluntary. 

Scripture Sentences. 

Anthems Jrom Psalms XXXIX. and XC, read by the Minister. 

COLLECT. 

Almighty God. with whom do live the spirits of those vvho depart hence in the 
Lord ; and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the bur- 
den of the flesh, are in joy and felicity; we give Thee hearty thanks for the good 
examples of all those Thy servant-, who, having finished their course in faith, do now 
rest from their labors. And we beseech Thee, that we, with all those who are departed 
in the true faith of Thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss in Thy 
eternal and everlasting glory, through Thy great mercy Amen. 

Hymn 465 — " Hearken, Lord, to my Complaints." 

Reading from the Old Testament. 

Choir Piece. 

Poetical Selection — " Go to the grave in all thy glorious prime. 

In full activity of zeal and power." 
Reading from the New Testament. 
Hymn 502 (to tune " America,") — " Lowly and solemn be 

Thy children's cry to thee." 
Poetical Selection — Wordsworth's " Character of the Happy 

Warrior." 
Address by the Minister. 

COLLECTS. 

O merciful God and heavenly Father, who hast taught us that Thou dost not will- 
ingly afflict or grieve the children of men, look with pity, we beseech Thee, upon the 
sorrows of Thy servants, the family of the late President of these United States. In 
Thy wisdom Thou hast seen fit to visit them with trouble and to bring distress upon 
them. Remember them, O Lord, in mercy ; sancHfy Thy Fatherly correction to them ; 
endue their souls with patience under their affliction and with resignation to Thy 
blessed will ; comfort them with a sense of Thy goodness ; lift up Thy countenance 
upon them and give them peace, through Thy great mercy. Amen. 

Almighty God, whose kingdom is everlasting and power infinite, have mercy upon 
this land and all that dwell therein, and ,so rule the hearts of Thy servants, the Presi- 
dent of the United Slates, and all others in authority over us, that they, remembering 
whose ministers they are, may, above all things, seek Thy honor and glory, .uid that 
we, duly considering whose authority they bear, may honor and obey them, in Ttu-e 
and forTliee, according to Thy blessed Word and Ordinance. .\men. 

O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered, make 
us, we beseech Thee, deeply sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of human life ; 
and let Thy Holy Spirit lead us through this vale of misery, in holiness and righteous- 
ness, all the days of our li.ves ; that, when we shall have served Thee in our genera- 
tion, we may be gathered unto (jur fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience ; 
in the communion of the Catholic Church; in the confidence of a certain faith; in 
the comfort of a reasonable, religious and holy hope ; in favor with Thee, our God, and 
in perfect charity with the world. .\men. 

Choir Piece. 

Hymn 496 — " Abide with me, fast tails the even-tide." 

Benediction. 



ADDRESS. 

AND now we stand among innumerable mourners by the 
grave-side of our President. There is httle more that need 
bespoken. He is at peace God rest his soul! An honest man, 
a good citizen, a pure husband, a faithful fatlier. His career is 
closed. 

Nay, not closed. One act is finished. Shall we think all that 
force, all that virtue, all that hope, ended? Rather is their course 
only begun. That honorable career, cut off on earth, was but an 
infancy, whereof a glorious growth, a full maturity, shall proceed to 
noble fruition, the unending fruition of eternity in heaven. 

Peace to his ashes ! Progress, joy, blessedness for the immortal 
soul ! The dust shall repose in the grave ; already the spirit has 
begun its course on high. 

He finished his course here well. He was bold, earnest, aspir- 
ing, persistent, patient. He withstood the temptations of youth 
and used its opportunities with fidelity. He stood manfully among 
men, and did his duty when called to sacrifices and to responsibili- 
ties. He rose through successive stations of honor, with modest)' 
and simplicity. He entered upon the highest earthly station, the 
headship of a free people, without petty elation, in an earnest 
sense of duty, with noble prospects of an honorable career, 

God called him hence in the very prime and beauty of his 
life. Let us think of him as needed elsewhere. Whatsoever God 
doeth is well. 

Nor let the tragic method of his taking off .seem to us less 
providential than the most natural translation should have been. 
All is of God ; the pestilence that stalketh in darkness, the arrow 
that flieth by day, the bullet .speeding to its terrible destination, 
all, — how, we cannot understand,— yet all are His. 

Forbear from hatred and revenge toward the miserable agent of 
this destruction and this woe. To God belongeth vengeance. He 
will repay. But his repaying is not of malice or revenge. It shall 
be the saving, cleansing penalt\- of redemption, through salt con- 
trition, through remorseful tears. Ah, pit)' for that unhappy soul! 
May God pity him ! Let us pity him ! and pitying, forgive ! 

One spasm of a vengeful spite should mar the .solemn harmou) 
of a world's grief welling on high to-day. 



i6 

We bury our President, — \ea, let us bury more. Let us bury 
sectional jealousy ; let us bury political corruption ; let us bury 
selfish greed of place ; let us bury all unholiness. 

So may the blood of this latest martyr be the fruitful seed of a 
religious, a sacred state, a people whose God shall be the Lord of 
purity, truth and brotherly love. 

Let us tenderly and especially remember, as we grieve, those 
who this day grieve the most. Remember the widow ; remember 
the orphans. Ah, the sorrow that is theirs ! Let us not unveil it. 
But let its sanctity touch us. Let the chastisement of their peace be 
upon us. 

Thanks be to God ! The President is dead ! The President 
lives ! The State is secure ! 

Secure from outward harm ; from intestinal divisions. In dan- 
ger only from itself; from ourselves. May God protect us. May 
God redeem us from all iniquity. As to our fathers, so be God to 
us. God save our State. Amen. 



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